Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Recently, I was looking through some shelves and papers for my copy of the Charge rules, but I think I've lost or parted with them. However, I did find these old books. Anyone remember them? :)

Not all are mine. My first copy was WRG 3rd Edition. This was still an era of Airfix plastic Romans and Ancient Britons though I did eventually progress to buying 6 Roman Legionaries from Minifigs. I was a long, long way from an ancient wargame at the time but I did put some plastic figures on bases and pushed them around.

Various other things and interests took over and the rules lay on a shelf. I returned to WRG with 6th Edition but still couldn't quite get into it. Then I met many gentlemen who are still my gaming opponents and got 7th Edition. I inherited the 4th and 5th editions in the picture but never read them. I got armies in 25mm and 15mm; Arabs and Selucids in both scales. At last, with 7th Edition, I was playing ancient wargames, though the rules gave me a good few headaches. At times I did wonder if these rules were meant to be fun - but thankfully a wargaming revelation was approaching....

Sunday, 7 August 2011

I visited the Claymore show in Edinburgh yesterday. An annual pilgrimage. It was OK, but nothing there really inspired me. There was a 28mm ECW game and a 15mm Crimean War game which looked reasonably interesting, but nothing for the horse and musket era in between. The only stuff I bought were paints and ready-cut bases.

However, there was one thing that made me suspicious and just a little disappointed. There are very few boardgames at shows now, so I had a quick browse along the shelves of the one trader who had some games. There was a little sign that said 10% off. I looked at some games and then a copy of Command and Colors which I saw was priced at £50. I just stared - speechless.

Pause - I have played Command and Colors with friends and have been thinking of getting my own copy. I know the current rrp of the game and what it sells for. And I already have the Napoleonic version.

So - here's me looking at a game priced £50, and I know it has an rrp of £45 and usually sells for around £40. And then I'm thinking - this trader has inflated his prices so that when he 'generously' offers his 10% show discount he's actually selling the game for the rrp.

It reminded me of Claymore last year, when a rather well-known Books seller inflated the prices of some rules sets. I reckon they just added what they'd normally add for postage, probably hoping that people standing with the product in their hand are not going to quibble about an extra 2 or 3 quid.

And so - OK - maybe the traders are just offsetting expenses or transport costs, but it feels just a little like we're being ripped-off.

Monday, 1 August 2011

Last week at the club, two chaps were playing FoGR in 15mm and using Danish vs Austrian/Empire, both armies from around the 1690's. This is roughly the end date for FoGR, so just before things move fully into the horse and musket era. They used Dixon figures and some other bunch whose name I've forgotten.

I didn't think I wanted to go 15mm for the GNW, but the mass of figures looked good on the tabletop. I'm trying not to listen to the voices ... the Claymore show is on in Edinburgh this weekend ... but I'm nearly sold on doing armies in 15mm.

Work continues. Now added black to hats and shoes and the chappies are now looking almost complete. Apologies for the quality of the photo ... I will get better at this bit.

And other GNW stuff I'm trying to push forward at the same time. At the front are artillery figures for battalion guns. The idea here is that a battalion gun base will have 1 artilleryman (blue uniform) and 1 seconded infantryman with a 3 or 4 pdr gun. In game terms, they will just be another unit, but I wanted to have lots of colour variation.

At the back are the generals. I wasn't quite sure what to do here to avoid any strict sense of uniforms so I have the chaps in white, red, straw yellow and blue. The idea is that the general officers are really pleasing themselves what they wear. And gold lace, lots of gold lace. Anything not covered in lace should probably be covered in more lace. Initially I used a pale gold, but after looking at one figure I thought, nah! - too pale - needs to be brighter, and so a bright gold was used. The chap in the red will be the grand fromage - or whatever the Danish equivalent should be - le grande bacon, perhaps.